The Boardroom

How Many People on Your HOA Board Can See the Bank Account?

Should two HOA board members approve payments? Count five lines tonight: signers, logins, statements, approvals and the reserve. Then raise each to two.

Justin · 8 min read · October 13, 2026

Two board members at a picnic table under a crape myrtle in a Carolina backyard at golden hour, one turning a phone so both can look, a brick ranch house and pine straw beds behind

The Rebel Answer

Yes. Two board members should approve every payment that leaves an HOA's account, adopted as a standing rule for every treasurer the community will ever have, not as a judgment about today's. Ask the bank whether its online banking can require a second user to approve each payment (dual control); if it cannot, adopt a written rule that no payment goes out without a second member's approval, and confirm any vendor bank-detail change by phone at a number already on file.

The short answer

Yes, two board members should approve every payment that leaves the account, and the board should adopt it as a standing rule for every treasurer it will ever have, not as a judgment about the one it has today.

Count five lines tonight: who can sign, who can log in, who gets the statement from the bank, who approves a payment, and who can see the reserve account. A count of one is a continuity gap and a protection gap at the same time.

Most lines go from one to two just by asking: a second login, a second statement recipient, a monthly report the whole board signs and, where your bank offers it, a second approver on every payment.

Two of one bank's customers got an email from a business they knew, telling them where to wire the money. One lost nothing, because someone looked again the same day. The other never got its money back, and in September 2025 the bank described both to federal regulators (CorTrust Bank comment letter, filed with the FDIC).

In the first, a customer got an invoice from a business it knew, with wiring instructions at the bottom, and asked the bank to send the wire. Later that day the customer's own accounting team called the bank. Its email had been hacked, and the whole exchange was fabricated. The bank stopped the wire. No money was lost. Then the bank helped the customer set up dual control, so a second person would have to approve every outgoing wire.

In the second, customers buying a school bus from a seller they had used before got an email changing the payment from a mailed check to a wire. They sent it. A couple of weeks later the real salesperson reached out, asking why no check had arrived. The money was never recovered.

Neither customer did anything wrong. The difference was a second look. An HOA pays its landscaper, its pool company and its insurer the same way, often from one volunteer's inbox.

Two neighbors at a garage workbench in late afternoon, one gently stopping the other's hand above a laptop whose screen is turned away from the camera, a lawn mower and a pegboard of tools behind, no readable text

The count: Five lines, one evening

How many people can see your community's money, and how many must agree before it moves? Write a number for each line, not a name.

Who can sign for the association at the bank.
Who can log in to online banking, each with their own login.
Who gets the statement straight from the bank.
Who approves a payment before it goes out.
Who can see the reserve account, not just the operating one.

A count of one is two gaps at once. If that person moves, gets sick or steps down, nobody else can pay the landscaper. And while they serve, nobody else sees what they see. The fix for both is the same second person.

A treasurer in her sixties at a kitchen table making a small pen mark beside a column of blank lines while the board member across from her leans in to look, a pitcher of sweet tea between them, loose illegible pen strokes only, no readable text

Line one: Who can sign

Ask the bank who is on the signature card. Cards are easy to forget when a board changes, so check whether it still names someone who has left, and whether the person paying the bills is the only current name on it.

Make it two: keep at least two current board members on the card, and update it, under a board resolution, the day the board changes.

If your checks carry two signature lines, ask the bank what it does with them. A two-signature line is a promise the board makes to itself.

Line two: Who can log in

Count people, not passwords. A login three board members share is a count of one, with no record of who did what.

Make it two: give each person who needs access a login of their own, and ask the bank whether a second board member can have view-only access. A second set of eyes does not need the power to move money. It needs to see it.

Line three: Who gets the statement

If the statement goes only to the person who pays the bills, the board sees the money through one report. That is not a judgment of the report. It is just one view.

Make it two: have the bank send the statement, or the notice that a new one is ready, to a second board member as well. Then a second person reads the bank's own page beside the treasurer's report each month. The ten-minute version of that check is here:

HOA Bank Reconciliation: The 10-Minute Monthly Board Check

A retired neighbor on the porch swing of a brick ranch home in the morning opening a plain envelope while his wife leans over his shoulder, pine straw beds beyond the railing, no readable text

Line four: Who approves a payment

This is the line the opening stories turn on, and the easiest to skip. Paying the bill and approving the bill are two jobs. When one person does both, every invoice, every new vendor and every "please update our bank details" email has exactly one checkpoint.

$2.77 billion in losses from business email compromise was reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2024, across 21,442 complaints: the scam where a familiar-looking email redirects a payment. — FBI IC3, 2024 Internet Crime Report

Make it two: ask your bank whether your online banking can require a second user to approve a payment before it is sent. Banks call it dual control or dual approval. Ask what it costs. If your bank does not offer it, the board can still agree that no payment goes out until a second member has said yes in writing, and that a vendor's change of bank details is confirmed by phone, at a number already on file. The FBI's own advice is to use "secondary channels and/or two-factor authentication to verify requests for changes in account information" (IC3 public service announcement, September 2024).

Another bank, writing to federal regulators, named what had worked for it:

Positive Pay with payee match, dual authorization, transaction alerts, and advance notice on large or atypical transactions have been particularly effective. — Troy Bank & Trust, comment letter to federal bank regulators, 2025

In North Carolina For associations under the Planned Community Act, the law bars payments to a board member, an officer, or their relatives or businesses unless the bylaws expressly provide for them or, for services or expenses paid on behalf of the association, the board approved them in advance (N.C.G.S. § 47F-3-118(c)). Unless your bylaws say otherwise, a treasurer's own reimbursement already needs the board's yes before it is paid.

Two board members beside a pickup truck in a church parking lot at dusk, one holding a pen out to the other over a single page laid on the hood, tall pines behind them, loose illegible pen strokes only, no readable text

Line five: Who can see the reserve

The reserve is the account nobody opens. It moves a few times a year, so it is easy for its signers and its logins to drift away from the operating account's.

Make it two: put the reserve balance on the monthly report beside the operating balance, and make sure the people on line one and line two are on the reserve account too. A count of one here matters most, because it is the money the community is saving for the roof it has not needed yet.

None of this is on a state checklist in the Carolinas. South Carolina's Homeowners Association Act (S.C. Code §§ 27-30-110 to 27-30-170) says nothing about bank signers, statements or fidelity coverage. North Carolina's Planned Community Act requires property and liability insurance, then lets the association carry "any other insurance it deems appropriate" (N.C.G.S. § 47F-3-113). So in many Carolina neighborhoods these five lines are set by your bylaws and your habits. General information, not legal advice: your governing documents and your attorney decide.

The routine: A rule, not a suspicion

The hard part is not the bank. It is the sentence at the meeting. The treasurer worries a second approver reads as distrust; everyone else worries asking reads as an accusation.

So make it about the seat, not the person. A two-person rule protects the treasurer as much as the community. With a second approver on every payment, nobody can ever say the treasurer acted alone. With a second person on the account, the treasurer can take a two-week vacation without the bills stopping.

The best person to propose it is the treasurer. If you are the treasurer, say this:

"I'd like us to adopt a two-person rule for the money, for every treasurer this community will ever have, starting with me."

Write it into the minutes as a standing policy. The next treasurer inherits a routine, not a conversation.

Four neighbors around a dining room table on a summer evening, a single page passed from hand to hand as each adds initials in turn, a ceiling fan overhead, loose illegible pen strokes only, no readable text

Frequently asked questions

Should two HOA board members have to approve payments? Yes, as a standing board policy. Ask your bank whether it can require a second user to approve each payment (dual control). If not, adopt a written rule that no payment goes out without a second member's approval, and confirm any vendor bank change by phone.

Does dual approval mean the board doesn't trust the treasurer? No. It is a rule for the seat, adopted for every future treasurer, and it protects the person in it: no payment can ever be put on one person alone.

What if our board has only two members, or one? Two members can approve each other's payments. A board of one can still add a second set of eyes: an owner the board asks to read the statement every month, with no seat and no power to move money. Your bylaws decide who may sign. See what to move when the board is down to one director.

The bottom line: Count to two

Protecting the money and keeping it running after someone leaves are the same control: a second person who can see it. Count your five lines tonight. Any line that reads one is the place to start.

The free Eyes-on-the-Money Count puts the five lines on one page, with the motion to read into the minutes and the questions to ask your bank.

Key takeaways

Two board members should approve every payment, adopted as a standing rule for every future treasurer, not a judgment about today's.
Count five lines: who can sign, who can log in (a shared login counts as one), who gets the statement from the bank, who approves a payment, who can see the reserve.
A count of one is a continuity gap and a protection gap at once; the fix for both is the same second person.
Most lines reach two by asking: a second login, a second statement recipient, a monthly report the whole board signs, and dual control where the bank offers it.
Business email compromise cost $2.77 billion in 2024 complaints to the FBI's IC3; confirm any vendor bank change by phone at a number already on file.
In the Carolinas these lines are mostly set by bylaws and habit: South Carolina's HOA Act is silent on signers and fidelity coverage, and North Carolina leaves insurance beyond property and liability to the association (but requires advance board approval for payments to a board member, § 47F-3-118(c)).

What this means for your board

Tonight, count the five lines and write a number on each. At the next meeting, the treasurer proposes a two-person rule for the money, written into the minutes as a standing policy, so every line reads two and the next treasurer inherits a routine instead of a conversation.